Tag: COVID-19

Thursday’s Theme Music

Welcome to As The Planet Turns. Today is August 26. 2021. Thursday. Cats are fed. One sleeps. Two others wash and supervise human activities. Breakfast is et. Coffee is brewed. Sunrise was at 6:30 AM. Sunset is planned for 7:55 PM. It’s about 62 F now. We expect a high of 81 to 84 F.

Blue skies are out there! Huzzah! Smoke has finally dissipated. Happened last night. I crept out, blinking at the sun, mask in hand, sniffing for smoke. A wind blew The sun was visible! And white and hot instead of orange or red. Windows were opened. Fresh air flowed. Well, sort of fresh. Fresher than it had been in weeks.

Today, even better, at the moment. Air quality hovers in the low sixties! We can see the mountains. But, yes, smoke is starting to screen the scene. Windows are open now but we’ll remain vigilant.

Vigilant is today’s key word for COVID-19 efforts. We’re back to masking outdoors in Oregon as of tomorrow, along with indoors. Had to be done. Hospitals are full. The crises grows like a mushroom cloud over a nuke. Too many are dissing the vax. Refusing to do it because…take your raison de jour. Religion. Philosophy. Politics. Ignorance. Freedom. Whichever it is, the majority who end up sick eventually flip. They wish they had received the vax and regret past actions. They were wrong, they’ll tell you. Too late for them. They’re hoping to save other anti-vaxxers.

The numbers tell it all. 10,000 unvaccinated, 500 will die. Along the way, ICUs and hospital beds will fill. The economy takes a hit because workers and customers are sick. Healthcare workers are exhausted.

With vaccinations, the infection rate falls. So does the death rate. Try .0046%. Which means, with vaccinations, one in 434,000 dies. Much different isn’t it?

“Murder by Numbers” comes to mind today. The 1983 song by The Police has lyrics by Sting, music by Copeland.

Now you can join the ranks of the illustrious
In history’s great dark hall of fame
All our greatest killers were industrious
At least the ones that we all know by name
But you can reach the top of your profession
If you become the leader of the land
For murder is the sport of the elected
And you don’t need
To lift a finger of your hand

h/t to Genius.com

That’s what I think of the governors in several states such as Texas, Florida, and North Dakota, along with other leaders who shout, “No mask! No vax!” These aren’t leaders. They are murderers.

Stay positive, test negative, wear a mask as needed, and get the vax. Here’s the music. Cheers

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Tuesday’s Theme Music

Good morning. Today is Tuesday, August 24, 2021. We’re into August’s last legs. September begins next week. Autum will take over in a few weeks. 2022 is hurtling toward us with comet speed.

Sunrise and sunset are 6:28 AM and 8:08 PM, respectively. Temps are lower. Just 60 F now. Expect mid-80s by the mid-afternoon.

We’re back to reality. Back home. In Ashland. Spent a week on the Oregon coast. Drove home yesterday. Coming south/east, smoke took over as the dominate feature, rendering trees and mountains into sketchy outlines, killing breathability, locking out blue sky and sunshine. Oregon, 2021: another year of smoke.

Yardwork needs tending. I’ll put on a mask and do it, though philosophical reservations pummel me. Is having a pretty yard really so critical when attaining it means risking your health. Hell, no, of course not. But, property values, the marketing forces reply. Image and impressions. Some suggest, hire someone. Sure, take advantage of another’s weak financial security and force them to sacrifice their health. Makes sense. Ah, but their choice, right? And they need the money. And there is capitalism’s doom loom in its essence.

The boys — Tucker, Boo, and Papi — are happy to have us back. Lot of love time spent with each yesterday. Heads were scratched. Purrs were issued. Comforting was done.

Had the Animals song, “It’s My Life”, in my mental music stream this morning. “Comedown” by Bush. Then Duran Duran replaced those with “Ordinary World”. Somehow, Lost Frequencies came through from 2015 with “Reality”. Just a matter of words with this light tune, really:

Decisions as I go to anywhere I flow
Sometimes I believe, at times I’m rational
I can fly high, I can go low
Today I got a million, tomorrow I don’t know

Stop claiming what you own, don’t think about the show
We’re all playing the same game, waiting on our loan
We’re unknown and known, special and a clone
Hate will make you cautious, love will make you glow

Make me feel the warmth, make me feel the cold
It’s written in our stories, it’s written on the walls
This is our call, we rise and we fall
Dancing in the moonlight, don’t we have it all?

h/t AZLyrics.com

Yes, I’m all over the map this AM. Happy to be home. Sad to be away from the ocean. Relieved my fur friends and home are okay. Appalled by the state of the air, the extended drought, the multitude of wildfires. Depressed by the break in routine, the inability to saunter to a coffee shop to write (see Air Quality, COVID-19 restrictions), humble that I have a life where I can make such choices.

Reality can be great. It can also suck. At the same time.

Stay positive. Test negative. Wear a mask as needed. Get the vax. Have some coffee. Or tea. Wine. Whatever. Enjoy the music. Cheers

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Sunday’s Theme Music

Sunday. August 22, 2021. My final full day on the coast. Clouds from sea to mountains. Will probably burn off. Cool breeze. Will probably grow stronger. About 58 F now, will probably top out in the upper sixties. That seems like the pattern in Florence, Oregon. Sunrise came at 6:28 AM. Sunset, which have been clear and beautiful out over the Pacific, will be at 8:10 PM.

It’s been a good vacation. Pleasant break from heat, routines, smoke. But I miss my writing routines. And I miss my beasts, Boo, Tucker, and Papi. Worry about them. Hope they’re doing fine. Probably are. Were almost always asleep when I was home. I imagine that hasn’t changed much with our housesitter.

Today’s song came via a sequence of events. First, read of a conservative talk radio vax denier who died of COVID-19 this year. Phil Valentine. Urged people not to vaccinate. Here’s a little from Rolling Stone magazine covering it.

“Valentine, whose nationally syndicated Phil Valentine Show aired on 100 stations from 2007 to 2019, had questioned the vaccines on his current show on Nashville’s SuperTalk 99.7 WTN and online, mocking the U.S.’s inoculation campaign in the song “Vaxman,” a parody of the Beatles’ “Taxman.” “I certainly am not getting the vax now,” he replied to a commenter on Facebook on July 14th. “I have full immunity.”

“Valentine died Saturday from complications related to Covid-19, according to a tweet from his station. He was 61.”

From denier to death in a few months. Not a new record. Nor is fresh and original. But after reading that, I walked through town to a coffee shop (River Roasting, which has superb coffee and a good vibe) assessing the weather. Inside the coffee shop, all were masked save for two. One was a woman who appeared to be in her thirties. Her tee shirt said, “Unmask our children”, white block letters on black. Wondered, is she vaccinated. If she gets COVID-19, will she beg us to vaccinate her children as she dies, as so many others have?

Long story. Not a happy one. Brought to mind the Supergrass song, “Alright”, 1995 (yes, I looked it up).

We are young,we run green
Keep our teeth nice and clean
See our friends, see the sights
And feel alright

[Verse 2]
We wake up, we go out
Smoke a fag, put it out
See our friends, see the sights
And feel alright

[Chorus]
Are we like you?
I can’t be sure
Of the scene as she turns
We are strange in our worlds

[Verse 3]
But we are young,we get by
Can’t go mad, ain’t got time
Sleep around if we like
But we’re alright

h/t to Lyrics.com

Song always struck me as a vacuous response to life. Yes, like most of us as youths experience. We run around, have fun, feeling invincible. Then shit happens.

Stay positive. Test negative, wear a mask as needed. Get the vax. Don’t wait until you’re dying on your bed to ask for it.

Here’s the music. Cheers

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Saturday’s Theme Music

Good afternoon, duckies! Today is Saturday, August 21, 2021. I remain on the Oregon coast on vacation. Tis why this post is so late coming out of my head. I arose first at 7 AM. That’s after sunrise, which came at 6:27. I was up to admire low tide. Cool then, in the middle fifties. Light rain wet everything. Thickening fog kept it all wet. Returned to bed for another hour. Then, shower, shave, and coffee, please. Took a walk. But — suddenly all were atwitter. Where are we going? What are we doing? We’re on vacation, fill the time, hurry, hurry, lest we don’t do things and enjoy this time on the coast. So we dashed out to check schedules. Assess weather. Make plans. Buy tickets. Then, we needed to kill time. Let us walk around and kill time while waiting to go on this thing for which we purchased tickets.

The fog burned off. We’re left with another lovely coast day. Upper sixties. Light breeze. Plentiful sunshine. Sunset will arrive at 8:11 PM.

So, with the vacation strings being pulled so hard today — we’re running out of time! Vacation is almost over! — vacation music blew into my head. Lindsay Buckingham’s 1983 song, “Holiday Road”, ended up drowning out the others.

I found out long ago
It's a long way down the holiday road
Holiday road
Holiday road

Jack be nimble, Jack be quick
Take a ride on the West Coast kick
Holiday road

H/t to Lyrics.com

Stay positive. Or try, you know? Yes, it can be a challenge, can’t it. Stay positive, test negative, wear a mask as needed, and get the vax. Enjoy the music, please. Cheers

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Friday’s Theme Music

Sol’s magic numbers for the Oregon coast for Friday are 6:26 and 8:13. That’s AM and PM. If you had those times in the pool, you may already be a winner.

Hello. Today is August 20, 2021. In the news today, COVID-19 vaccinations, cases, and deaths are all up. Locally in my county, the vaccination rate jumped to 2.1% a week. Yeah, progress. Probably because people are becoming woke. ICUs filled. Hospitals running out of beds and staff. Greater reports of people who said, “I’m healthy. I’ll survive it.” Then they succumb. In one case, it was a forty-two y.o. mother and her forty-eight y.o. spouse. They left four orphaned children. Mom’s final request was that her children get vaccinated. Why didn’t you go get it, Mom? Why?

In other news, there are still wildfires burning and a drought going on. Politicians and columnists are wringing their hands over the evacuation out of Afghanistan. Yeah, they apparently didn’t see that coming. Perhaps I’m too cynical but it’s exactly what I saw coming back when George Bush and his administration made their promises in 2001. War was going to pay for itself. A cakewalk. Wasn’t that the gang that said they’d always have an exit strategy? The ones who weren’t into nation building? Yeah, so, sorry, not surprised by this disastrous end to a disastrous war. Should have never been there. In drone news…

Yeah, not going there. Just revving you up a little.

Turning to weather, it’s partly cloudy and cool here on the Oregon coast. Low sixties. High will be in the mid sixties. Breeze of about ten MPH blowing. Clear air.

My mind began playing “Love Hurts” for me this morning. I don’t know why. Decided to go with it. Nazareth. 1975. Stay positive. Test negative. Wear a mask as needed. Get the vax. Let’s be careful out there. Here’s the music. Cheers

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Wednesday’s Theme Music

Another day on the coast. Sunshine shouldered in at 6:24 AM. Clouds took note of Sol’s mood and sauntered off oh so casual, not really going because he was there but just ‘cuz. Temperatures perked up. They swear it’ll be in the mid sixties by the time Sol strolls out at 8:16 PM.

Today is Wednesday, August 18, 2021. Our housesitter back home said smoke is gone. AQI sits at 105 this morning per the Innertube. Still not healthy. Yesterday’s high in Ashland, she said, was in the mid-seventies. It’s going to be in the low eighties today, is the claim. We’ll see.

Nice to be indulging in a little vacation. Sharing a condo with friends. Two couples. It’s enough space but my energy veers away from the spectrum’s social end. I’m more internal. Like my writing. Routines. Those are all unintentionally trample by others. Because, to be normal in America means you stop what you’re doing. Socialize. ‘To have fun’. Just shut off one thing. Turn on the other. Doesn’t work like that for me. While the wife knows, she suffers it. So I suffer because she suffers. There.

My mental music today is “Push” by The Cure. Picked it up from my friend yonks ago. Think it came out in 1986. At least, that’s when I associate the song with my life. Could be wrong. Wouldn’t be the first. Could attempt to hunt down the correct year but I’m a little lazy this morning, sitting by the water in the shadows as the sun’s presence grows.

Stay positive, test negative, wear a mask, and get that vax. Even talking a third shot. At least 99% of those encountered in stores and restaurants are masked. Bit reassuring. Here’s the music. Cheers

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Wednesday’s Theme Music

Smoke blankets us. A heat dome squat over us. 102 to 114 F today. COVID-19 in our county are at their highest levels ever. Kind of puts me in the mood for “Eve of Destruction”. Too heavy handed, don’t you think? Would be like taking a howitzer to a mosquito.

Sorry, haven’t had my coffee yet. Feeling tetchy. Today is Wednesday, August 11, 2021. Sunrise came on at 6:14 AM. Sunset will be at 8:17 PM. The sunsets, watched from being windows and a smoky haze, are beautiful in their own red, hellish way. The sun glows a nuclear red. As it sets behind the hills, the red glow spreads across the sky, painting the parched, brown land in bright red tones. We could have called yesterday Redday instead of Tuesday. Yeah, not subtle. Our air quality sits at 256, the purple zone, which is very unhealthy. Advisories have been issued: it’s super hot, so don’t go outside. And it’s smoky and the air is unhealthy, so also don’t go outside. Keep your doors and windows closed. And if you do go in somewhere, wear a mask. Also, wear one outside.

Yes, the masks are making a comeback in Oregon. Not surprising. With ICUs filled and people being turned away, sixty employees of one local hospital are also COVID-19 positive. Not a fun month, August, 2021. Started out with a lot of promise and hope. Most of that’s been swallowed by heat, smoke, and COVID-19. Meanwhile, after the IPCC’s devastating report on climate change, WaPo has an opinion piece on why we shouldn’t give in to climate despair. Which of the other despairs should we give into?

All this leaves me feeling a little grungy this morning. Alice in Chains brings “Down In A Hole” (1992) to the mental concert.

Down in a hole and I don’t know if I can be saved
See my heart I decorate it like a grave
Oh, you don’t understand who they thought I was supposed to be
Look at me now I’m a man who won’t let himself be

Down in a hole, feeling so small
Down in a hole, losing my soul
I’d like to fly
But my wings have been so denied

h/t AZLyrics.com

That’s good car music, hey? Stay positive. Test negative. Wear a mask. Get the vax. Here is the music. That is all. Cheers

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Tuesday’s Theme Music

20:16 – 06:13. Sunset, sunrise. I complete the math in my head. Daylight minutes are falling back. Sunrise is later. Sunset is earlier. An annual thing. Recurring. Yet, I let it dominate morning thoughts like the end is nigh. Probably a product of circumstance. Outside activity is limited. Another high dome is settling on us. Back up to 101-105. No humidity. The drought deepens. Its pervasive effects suck out life. Air quality is unhealthy as wildfire smoke curls up in the valley. Better the smoke than the fire, I remind myself with some weariness. Trying to be positive. COVID-19 cases are also setting new area records. ICUs are overrun. Hospital staff have contracted COVID-19. Then there are personal matters I don’t put in posts.

Good morning, and a happy Tuesday to you, too! Today is Tuesday, August 10, 2021. 2021 is hurrying by as a year but it’s gonna leave a mark.

For music, I’ve been sucked into a song by The Calling, “Wherever You Will Go” (2001). This was a cat issue. Tucker insisted upon being my bodyfloof, right there at my heels as I walked down the hall, jumping up on the desk when I sat to type, etc. I processed the usual requests – “Are you hungry? Do you want a treat?” Petted and brushed him. Gave him some nip. But he hung with me. Guess that’s what he wanted. Which prompted the song.

Stay positive. Yes, it’s hard, innit? Is for me. Life can be a wearying business. Especially if you’re like me, staring at the smoke, contemplating COVID-19, struggling to write, pondering the imponderables. But stay positive. Rant a bit. Let it go, if you can. Test negative. Wear the mask when it’s needed. Get the vaccination, please.

Here’s the music. Cheers

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Sunday’s Theme Music

“Sunday, Sunday, Sunday.” That echoing baritone used to herald local events during television and radio commercials. Monster truck shows. Wrestling at the armory. That sort of thing.

Today is Sunday, August 8, 2021. Smoke continues plaguing us. It’s better than fire. So many fires continue burning out here in the western U.S. that only the most positive of people can stay upbeat. White clouds are skulking through the sky. Temperatures will be on the cool side, with a high around 82 F, they say. But Alexa told me yesterday that it would only get to 86. Then 90. Then 91. That’s where it peaked. Hope it stays cool

Sunrise’s gray, gold, and pink marbleized lights and shadows came into the valley at 6:09 AM. We’ll have another red ball sunset at 8:27 PM.

COVID-19, the Delta variant, vaccines, and masks continue to dominate my news cycle. Despite the Olympics and the new U.S. air strikes in Afghanistan. All ‘water is wet’ news anymore. The U.S. has been bombing someone throughout my lifetime. Probably will be after I’m gone.

Yesterday had me getting rid of some old exercise equipment. I disassembled things to make it easier to load, transport, and unload at the dump. (Yes, nobody wanted any of it, further depressing me.) The bike required an allen wrench. I have several sets. When I realized I needed one and headed to the workbench, Billy Joel began singing “Allentown” (1982).

Well, we’re living here in Allentown
And they’re closing all the factories down
Out in Bethlehem, they’re killing time
Filling out forms, standing in line

h/t to Genius.com

Well, the song won’t leave my head. It played even when I was lying in bed. Even while feeding the cat getting a drink by the kitchen sink. So, I must spread it out to others to remove it from my mind. Sorry, friends. That’s how these things work. It’s been so since the first recorded song.

Stay positive, test negative, wear a mask as needed — and they do seem needed again in the U.S. as the nation records record numbers of new cases — and get the vax, if you can. The vax may not fully and completely protect you from the virus but it will mitigate its symptoms and the probable results. In other words, you’re more likely to survive with the vaccine than without it.

Cheers

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Friday’s Theme Music

“What a difference a day makes. Twenty-four little hours.”

It made a difference here. Blue skies. Unfiltered sunshine. Just a taste of smoke southern Oregon’s air. A tincture of dirty cloud on the western horizon. AQI is back down to 40 — the lower, the better — and in the green. Green is good. Most of Jackson County and southern Oregon remains yellow, with warnings to take precautions in effect. Our windows are open for now. A cool breeze bathes my back. Hopes this is a reflection that the fires are now out, or lined, contained, you know, no longer growing.

Today is Friday, August 6, 2021. Ashland’s temperature is expected to top out in the mid to upper eighties. Sunrise fell upon us at 6:09 AM. The Earth will turn us away from the sun at 8:24 PM.

Going with A-Ha and “Take On Me” from 1984 for my theme music. My wife and I were in a military cafeteria in Japan when we first saw the video for this song. It seemed interesting, different, attention-arresting. It’s in my head this morning due to dreams. Cogitating on their details, I said, “Aha.” And there’s the connection. It’s a little deeper in reality; the dreams were all superficially military oriented, hammering the point about change and the past.

Stay positive, test negative, wear a mask as necessary, and get the vaccine. Pleased to report that local pharmacies are suddenly swamped with people seeking one of the COVID-19 vaccines. Stories of people losing their lives or several loved ones from the virus because they were unsure about the vaccine have been circulating. They seem to be affecting people. Terrible reading about, example, a woman losing her husband, grandmother, mother, and husband’s father to COVID-19 because they wanted the vaccine to be more thoroughly tested first. Now she regrets their decision but she’s the only one who can get the vaccine. Too late for the rest.

Here’s the music. Cheers

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